Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

Gr 4-6–Twelve-year-old violin prodigy Lotus enters Atlantis School of the Arts and immediately replaces the orchestra’s first chair, inciting retaliative in-school bullying that escalates into parental claims of racist dress-code violations over Lotus’s fabulous afro. Her best friend Rebel is all about justice and revolution, pushing Lotus to claim her agency. Inspiring story aside, this is one of those headshake-inducing titles that could make readers question the importance of accuracy and details—in both print and audio—especially in a National Book Award longlist title. Lotus and her mother watch Casablanca, only to perpetuate the “Play it again, Sam” misquote, erroneously attributed to Bogie (it’s Ingrid who says, “Play it, Sam”). Casting Canadian actor Williams with her distinct “aGAINST,” “owwt,” “sohrry”-pronunciations doesn’t complement an at-least-third-generation Miamian.